ON TRAVEL AND ART

“I try to concentrate on quality clothing and accessories that are worth having, and to get my people to take less trips by air and stay longer each time they travel. It’s more human, especially if they take time to visit an art gallery while there.”

ON CONSUMERISM

“There is a real connection between culture and climate change. We all have a part to play and if you engage with life, you will get a new set of values, get off the consumer treadmill, and start to think, and it is these great thinkers who will rescue the planet.”

ON DISPOSABLE FASHION

“People have never looked so ugly as they do today. We just consume far too much.. I’m talking about all this disposable crap. What I’m saying is buy less, choose well. Don’t just suck up stuff so everybody looks like clones. Don’t just eat McDonald’s, get something a bit better. Eat a salad. That’s what fashion is. It’s something that is a bit better.”

ON FASHION MAGAZINES

“I never look at fashion magazines. I find them incredibly boring. To me, reading a fashion magazine is the last thing I need to do. I’ve got books I need to read. More people should read books. It’s the most concentrated experience you can have. You know, all those incredible geniuses concentrated their lifetimes’ experiences in books. It’s much better than chattering away to somebody who’s never read anything and knows nothing at all.”

ON DISASTER

“How impossible it is for us to imagine ourselves victims of disaster. We suffer for the poor people who were thrown into the sea from their cruise ship off the coast of Tuscany, some losing their lives. Imagine a world of accelerating natural disasters, one after the other so that nobody can help anyone else.”

ON DRESSING WELL

“There’s this idea that somehow you’ve got to keep changing things, and as often as possible. Maybe if people just decided not to buy anything for a while, they’d get a chance to think about what they wanted; what they really liked.”